Playing-cards.



M. 'A. ERMOLD.

PLAYING CARDS.

APPLlCATlON FILED mm. 15. 1916.

1,212,198. Patented Jan. 16,1917.

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. anna, wr tten by Eleanor'H. Porter, and

MARK ATLEE EBMOLD, or HADDQN arrears, NEW JEMEY- PLAYING-CARDS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 16, 1917.

Appl ca on led March 1 16 er No sew To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MARK ATLEE ERMOLD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Haddon Heights, in the county of Camden and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Playing-Cards; and I do hereby declare thefollowing to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to games, and more especially to those which are played with cards; and the object of the same is to pro.- duce a pack of playing cards with which a number of people (preferably more than three) may be amused or perhaps instructed while playing a game which has. its debit and credit scores, hereinafter'known as penalties and rewards. The basic principle of the game is that each player seeks asmuch reward and as little penalty as possible, and as these scores are always in numbers I prefer to print figures on the cards. As an IIISIJI'UC'." tive or amusing feature of the game, I propose also to print the cards with data addi-i tional to the numbers, and this data may be in the form of words or reading matter, illustrations, etc. The game as hereinafter described is based on the story of Pollyp more particularly to the characters in said story; but I desire it distinctly understood that the game might be based on any other story, play, sketch, or musical or dramatic compositlon, and infact the game in order to be instructive might be based on works of science, art, history, geography, etc.

The following specification may therefore be said to describe the preferred details of my pack of cards, as well as the preferred manner of playing the game therewith and reference is made to the accompanying drawings in which V Figure 1 shows the variousscards used in the game, and Fig, 2 is a perspective view of the barrel which stands on the table when the game is played as described below.

The cards themselves may be and probably will be of the size and texture used for ordinary playing cards, with ornamental backs not shown in the drawings, with square or rounded corners, and with or without the squeezers often used on playing cards and not shown herein becaus e form no Pa t the Pt an? int tion,-

The matter inscribed on the face of the cards is essentially figures or numbers, generally the names of characters from the'story, etc.,

not as pr fe Th P k W th h ch I have played my game is made up of ten g ps n a ning x ca ds ea h; Q that t P k Z ixty ards in an th f ow ing description and the accompanying illus= tration are based on these figures although I would not be-limited in this respect. All cards in each group are identical, and this fact cheapens the cost of production because the printer or lithographer need have but ten forms with which to print the faces of a pack of these cards. Also, if there. are no illustrations the printing can be done in any ordinary ofiice because it requires only the ype ne s to r du e umer ls d mes 11 s 1 rst n ng, n th a game based on the story of Pollyanna, the cards are numbered and entitled respectively as follows: N0. 1, Buffy; No, 2, Fluffy; No.

3, Ladies Aider; No. 4:, Mrs. Snow; No, 5, Nancy; No. 6, Jimmy Bean; No, 7, Dr. Chilton; No. 8, Aunt Polly; No. 9, John Pendleton; No. 10,- Pollyanna.

By preference the last card named above and whichv bears. the highest number and the title name of the story, is printed in red or in different shape or size of type so as to give it a certain characteristic of its own, additional to the fact that it bears the highest number. The card numbered 9 bears the name John Pendleton who, as is well known to those familiar with Pollyanna, was the grouch of the story, and this card I call the grouch card for purposes which will appear below. Also the vernacular preferably employed when the game is basedon this story is as fOllOWSLThG cards lying on the table are called the garden,'and alongside them stands the barrel as shown in F g! 2 of the raw g Th ea e of th or inary car me is in thi (13 2 ca led the donor, and to deal or to la a card is to donate it. The cards are freckles which were the bane of Pollyannas life. Friend is the name given to two or more cards when collected during the play, because the player is supposed to make a friend at that time; and grouch is the word facetiously applied to the donor who makes a misdeal or to a player who makes a misplay, as well as to the player who is forced to match the grouch freckle in the garden by the rules of play setforth below. If any player makes seven friends he is awarded a rainbow, which is a special way of winning the game although he may not have secured the highest number of rewards. Each round of play is called a prism, because it throws light on the character of hands held bythe different players. Other special words from the story of Pollyanna mightbe selected and employed, or from other stories perhaps a larger number could be used. It isessential in any case, however, that at least one card, which is that hearing number 9 herein, shall be called the groueh card as seen below.

In playing this game, adonor is selected, and he shuflles" the freckles and donates about half of the pack to the players and the garden, donating one each with its back up to the playersand finally laying one with its face up in the garden. This he continues, around and around, until about half the pack is exhaustedand the balance is placed in the barrel shown in Fig. 2. The players then sort their freckles, and he to the left of the donor attempts to match some of the freckles held in his hand with those lying in the garden-his' best "policy being to match the freckles with the highest reward number for a reason which will appear below. If he can makesuch a match he lays down his freckle upon the corresponding freckle in the garden and then takes in all of them bearing that number and name and turns them face down on the table in front of him. If this player is unable to make any such match, he donates one of his freekles, face up, to the garden, for the benefit of succeeding playersit being his best policy to eliminate the grouch freckle, or otherwise to'get rid of a freckle bearing a small number. This is continued around to and including the donor, when a prism has been completed, and prisms are repeated until the freckles are exhausted from the players hands. If at any time there are no freckles in the garden, the player in turn is obliged to donate one thereto, and at this tlme it is his best policy to donate the grouch freckle numered 9, bearing the name John Pendleton. This is ofcourse seen by other players, and interest in the game is immediately enhanced because of the danger to subsequent players who are compelled by the rules to match with this freckle if they happen to have one remaining in their hand. When any player does so, he is said to make a grouch or become a grouch, and he sufiers considerable derision which of course produces merriment and makes the game pleasing. The player making this match is now penalized by the score keeper, an amount previously agreed upon. If, on the other hand, any player should match with the last freckle remaining in the garden which is not labeled John Pendleton, he announces Im glad Ive made a friend, and takes up all the freckles as above described; and at this time is credited with a special reward by the score keeper to an amount previously agreed upon. These special rewards and penalties occur only when a match is made with a freckle which lies alone in the garden, but it will be found by experience that such exceptional occasions arise quite often in a game, and the imposition of penalties are of course the occasion of merrilnent. The donor now takes the freckles remaining in the barrel, and donates them again around and around as before until they are all exhausted; and if they do not come out even, the remaining freckles are laid in the garden alongside the others. Play is then resumed, and is carried out exactly as above; and the player making the last match is permitted to take in all the freckles remaining in the garden.

The counting is done in the following manner: Each player takes up the freckles which he has accumulated and which now lie face down in front of him, and announces his claim to the possession of a majority of freckles bearing the highest number possible. That is to say, assuming that he has three Pollyanna freckles out of the six there are in the pack, he claims to hold the major ity on the assumption that the other three are scattered; and he substantiates this claim unless it is disputed. If it should so happen that some other player holds the other three, there is a tie and no score; but if his claim is substantiated he counts 10 if such was the number printed on these freckles, or he could count 9 if he held a majority of the John Pendleton freckles. This is continued for all players holding freckles above those numbered 5, and the remainder are considered too small to count. A second factor in counting is an arbitrary number (preferably 5 or 10 as agreed upon in advance) which is next awarded to the player who holds the igreatest number of freckles. The score is ept by the selected person who adds these factors to the awards above mentioned when a friend was made}? and who deducts the penalties from time to time; and the game is won by that player whose score first reaches a number agreed upon in advance, as 100. ,An exception in the winning of the game is that it is awarded forthwith to the first player Who makes seven friends, Which act constitutes a rainbow. This means that the score keeper must keep a running account opposite each players name of the friends he makes in the manner above described, and when this reaches seven it should be immediately announced by the score keeper, because it terminates both the prism playing and the game. It Will not be necessary for the purpose of this specification to explain how the game might be used progressively, and in fact the idea is susceptible of amplifications and ramifications Which need not also be gone into.

What I claim is:

A pack of cards for a game based on a story, said pack being made up of groups and the cards in each group bearing identical titles corresponding With the characters in the story and diflering from the titles on allother cards, the title on the'cards in one group being the name of an unpleasant character in said story and indicating penalties, While those in the other groups indicate rewards.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of tWo Witnesses.

MARK ATLEE ERMOLD.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D 0. 

